The March 2019 winner of the Talbot Collection Cork Community, Business and Sports Awards is Sanita Puspure, World Rowing Champion in the Women’s Single Sculls event. Sanita moved to Ireland from Latvia in 2006 and lives in Ballincollig with her husband Kaspar and children, Daniela, 12, and Patrick aged 11. Sanita competed for Latvia at junior level and joined Old Collegians Boat Club in Dublin when she first moved to Ireland. She later moved to Cork to train at the National Rowing Centre and row more competitively. She began representing Ireland in World Cup events in 2010 after gaining Irish citizenship, rowing in the single scull event for the first time at a World Cup regatta in 2012, finishing fifth. Sanita was Ireland’s only rowing competitor at the London Olympic Games and the first female single sculler to represent Ireland in the Olympics since 1980. She placed first in the C Final at the London Olympics, ranking 13th overall. She placed fourth at the 2014 World Championships and won bronze at the European Championships in 2014 and 2016. In 2016 she won bronze at World Cup I and placed 13th at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the women’s heavyweight single sculls, and narrowly missed out on a medal at the 2017 World Championships, placing fourth. 2018 got off to a good start with a win at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships however she spent the following two months doing land based training due to injury. A training camp trip to Italy showed a return to form when she won two medals at the Paolo d’Aloja Memorial Regatta in Piediluco. In May 2018, Sanita put in a phenomenal performance at World Rowing Cup I in Serbia, winning silver in the women’s single sculls. Her excellent form continued throughout her 2018 World Rowing Championships campaign, qualifying for both the semi-finals and final with the fastest time across her category when she powered ahead from the outset of her finals race to dominate throughout and win. pics Ger Bonus
